


I Had This Picture In My Head

by maelstromdeparture



Series: Spirit of the Sea [11]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Brotherhood, Healing, Pirates, Prophetic Visions, Sirens, Witches, i'm not even sure if that's everyone but it's going to be good enough
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 20:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28766499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maelstromdeparture/pseuds/maelstromdeparture
Summary: The Levanter arrives and waits for the rest of the crews to reach the island after the successful raid of Fort Gales. Plans are made, new friends await them in the port, and on the horizon war patiently waits for the pirates to turn their ships towards her.
Series: Spirit of the Sea [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927246
Comments: 17
Kudos: 46





	I Had This Picture In My Head

**Author's Note:**

> okay i'm super sleepy so if i'm wrong i'll fix it later but i swear there aren't actually warnings for this fic...which is definitely a first for this series. 
> 
> so enjoy :)

Over the next couple weeks that it takes for the Levanter to sail towards Ego’s haven, Daehwi helps Seungmin sort through all the information they had stolen from Governor Kim. It takes Daehwi most of the first week to get over his nervousness around the other boys, but by the end of the first week he asks Seungmin to teach him how to sail. Which meant the second week as they dodged Navy and pirate ships alike trying to get to the haven, they also taught Daehwi everything they could in the short time they had to do so. He had been especially excited when Felix and Hyunjin volunteered to teach him to fight. While he did well with everything Felix was teaching him it was quickly apparent that he had a knack for shooting the same as Hyunjin did and he ended up spending most of his time not helping Seungmin practicing fighting with Hyunjin and improving his aim. After sailing for two weeks they finally neared the point that the haven was supposed to be at. Chan slowed the Levanter to a halt as everyone else gathered on the deck looking at the island before them. It was surrounded by rocks and cliffs and there was no visible place to dock at all. It certainly wouldn’t be somewhere that a ship would stop or that any of the governments would attempt to set up a colony for the lack of easy access to it.

“Where’s the opening that Lovesick mentioned?” asked Seungmin frowning at the land before them.

“Jennie said that it’d be hidden by magic,” said Chan frowning. “I’m not sure how because last I knew Ego didn’t have a witch, but I sure don’t see anywhere to land.”

“There’s the two pine trees stood on the highest cliff,” said Felix pointing to the landmarks Jennie had given the crews.

“Anyone feel anything?” asked Chan looking towards Hyunjin who shook his head and then Jeongin who was frowning.

“The water is moving under that cliff,” he stated finally, “like that’s not really a cliff there.”

“Alright,” said Chan, “anyone opposed to sailing for it?” No one spoke up, trusting that Jeongin was right and that the ship would pass through it with ease. Chan nodded and steered the Levanter towards the rocks. Several of the boys cringed back in anticipation as they approached the first of the large rocks only to relax when they passed right through it. The bow of the ship disappeared into the apparent cliff before them and then the rest of them followed, the cliff seeming to ripple slightly around them and then they were looking at a completely different island. It still had cliffs on three sides but the side facing them, was a perfect docking place with a wooden dock already built around it. There were several small cabins built up around the dock, further back from the ocean, and a couple arm like rock lines stretched out around the dock widely, creating a small barrier that would protect the dock inside them.

“Wow,” whispered Hyunjin softly looking around.

“How’d they find this?” muttered Jisung looking, “holy shit, those are sirens.” Jeongin leaned over the side of the ship surprised looking. There was a small pod of sirens swimming alongside them now, looking over the ship with curiosity, but doing anything against them. They had far more scales than Yeosang did, though they still lacked the tail that most mer had, there were ridges along their spines much like Jeongin’s though, they certainly didn’t look human in the least. A handful of people gathered on the dock a shout going up through the very small town at the sight of a ship moving towards them.

“We’re the first here,” said Seungmin looking around at the empty dock.

“The others will be fine, they’ll just be a bit longer because they don’t have hyung’s magic,” said Minho nodding. They docked the Levanter quickly and a couple of boys climbed up to help them.

“ _Captain GD said you might come,_ ” said one of them looking over the group of them. “ _Wow, you’re a lot younger than I thought you’d be. You sure have a lot of stories for the size of your crew and your age. Welcome to Heaven._ ”

“ _Thanks,_ ” said Chan and Minho couldn’t help but notice that the dark circles under his eyes had gotten darker, he really wasn’t sleeping well despite no one having to sit on him yet.

“ _Have any other ships come through recently?_ ” asked Felix curious.

“ _Not since Ego stopped on their way to Tortuga,_ ” said the boy shaking his head. “ _How long will you stay?_ ”

“ _We’re waiting for the others to get here, it should be soon. Lovesick gave everyone the location so we could meet up without gaining the attention of the Navy,_ ” said Chan nodding. “ _This place has supplies to last an entire month without seeing anyone?_ ”

“ _Heaven is self-sufficient,_ ” said the boy nodding and gesturing, “ _we’re small, but Captain GD was adamant that we not need to rely on trade to survive here. There’s plenty of food and supplies to stock up on should you need it. Do you know what happened in Tortuga?_ ”

“ _Some,_ ” said Chan nodding, “ _we left halfway through. Ego will probably be by soon, Lovesick said they weren’t going to fight. So they’re probably headed this way._ ” The boy nodded and led the way down to the dock.

“ _There’s room in the cabins for your crew if you want, or you can stay on your ship, the pod will leave you alone so don’t worry,_ ” said the boy gesturing to the ocean.

“ _Are they friendly?_ ” asked Jeongin curious craning his neck to look at the ocean looking for the sirens, “ _I haven’t gotten to swim in a long time._ ”

“ _Yes, of course,_ ” said the boy nodding. “ _They’re part of the community and since you’re welcome they will leave you alone._ ” Jeongin bounced slightly excited at that and looked at Chan.

“Hyung, can I swim?” he asked and Chan hesitated.

“Take someone with you, okay?” he said nodding and Jeongin beamed.

“I’ll go with you, Innie,” said Jisung nodding and Jeongin grabbed his hand pulling him down the dock towards the beach excitedly. The boy watched them go for a moment before leading the way up the dock towards the town.

“ _Are you in charge then?_ ” asked Chan curious.

“ _No, I just help make sure things run okay while Captain G Dragon is gone,_ ” said the boy nodding. “ _Jihoon helps me, my Korean isn’t super good but Jihoonie’s is way better. He remembers it from home. I’m Hyunsuk._ ” Chan nodded.

“ _Alright. This is Daehwi, we told him we would drop him off in Australia, but we can’t do that until things have settled down some, can he stay with you all for now?_ ” asked Chan and Hyunsuk nodded.

“ _Of course,_ ” he agreed. “ _There should be room in with Woong and the others. Hey, Woong, you’ve got room for one more, right?_ ”

“ _Yes,_ ” said another boy nodding immediately, “ _they brought an extra?_ ”

“ _Yeah, Daehwi, this is Woong, Woong, Daehwi,_ ” said Hyunsuk making quick introductions.

“ _Nice, come on, I’ll show you where we live and introduce you to the others,_ ” said Woong before turning and leading the way up one of the paths through the small town. Daehwi hurried after him quickly. The boys dispersed pretty quickly through the town once they reached the others gathered waiting for them on the dock. Changbin and Felix headed off with some of the others to find food, Seungmin and Hyunjin went with Hyunsuk to be introduced to the witches that were in charge of keeping the island town hidden from outsiders and Minho stayed with Chan looking around the town.

By the time everyone had gathered back together on the ship that night, Jeongin excitedly talking to Seungmin and Felix about his and Jisung’s experience swimming with the sirens and how they’d said that Jeongin’s adult teeth and fins should be coming in soon and his magic will probably get a lot stronger when they do. Changbin and Minho were talking with Hyunjin about the magic involved in keeping the island hidden and Hyunjin told them excitedly about his new friends who were also witches and had taught him a couple more things he could do with his own magic. Jisung pulled away from the conversation about the sirens to look for Chan and realized he wasn’t on deck with them. He wasn’t up at the helm since they had no where to be going so Jisung went to check the cabin first and then the map room. Chan was sitting on the floor by one of the maps, holding the letter from Eclipse in his hands.

“Hyung? Are you okay?” asked Jisung and Chan looked up and smiled at him.

“Yeah, what’s up?” asked Chan. He looked exhausted.

“You don’t have to lie to us, hyung, we know you’re not okay,” said Jisung moving over to sit next to him. “Are you going to read that?”

“You think I should?” asked Chan flipping the letter over in his hands relaxing into Jisung’s side slightly as they sat together. “I’m thinking about just tossing it out the window. I should’ve thrown it to the sea the night Zombie gave it to me.”

“I think not knowing is going to hurt you more than knowing will,” said Jisung, “but it’s your letter so you decide.” Chan’s quiet a while longer absently flipping the letter over in his hands.

“It was you they betrayed, and I know you want to know why,” said Chan softly.

“Hyung, they didn’t give the letter to me. And it’s okay if I don’t know why. I don’t think there’s any reason they could give that would make me okay with it,” said Jisung shaking his head. “JB-hyung knows what being a prophet did to me, he knows what I went through. There’s nothing that could rationalize his decision to allow that to happen again for me. I would like to know that Mark-hyung’s okay though. If he did that to me there’s nothing saying he wouldn’t to Mark-hyung. Reading that letter won’t change anything for me, but it might for you. If you want to know you should know. Don’t use me as a reason to try and rationalize it to yourself. You’re allowed to want an explanation, hyung.” Chan was quiet again before flipping the letter over once, twice, and then opening it quickly. He scanned it quietly.

“Mark’s okay they had him on the Eclipse. The Alliance head found out about both of our ships having a seer on board, he threatened Mark tried to keep him at his home with him and JB and the others barely got him out. He told his crew that they’d rescued Mark, it’s what he told Mark too. But he made a deal with their Alliance head in order to get him back on the ship, that he’d make sure you were revealed at the meeting. Apparently it would give JYP the upper hand as for some reason instead of walking out we were supposed to go running to their alliance for support and the plans against the pirates would still be seen using a seer,” said Chan relaying the message. “Mark-hyung’s hurt but he’s okay.” Jisung nodded.

“They’re both stupid for thinking that would convince us to join their alliance,” said Jisung.

“It was supposed to be backing us into a corner to accept it. JB and JYP knew that I wasn’t going to willingly join the Alliance,” said Chan shaking his head. “They didn’t count on us having other options. The Eclipse and JYP both forgot that they were not the only people that I’ve sailed with in the past, that they aren’t the only allies the Levanter has. There were other ways to get Mark-hyung out. I’m glad he’s okay, but what JB did is not something I’m going to forgive. He’s not allowed to think that was okay, no one else is either.”

“Are we going to go to war with Eclipse too then?” asked Jisung not sounding even slightly concerned about having to fight the person that had helped him with his magic the most. Chan couldn’t stop the warmth in his chest at the realization that despite Mark being important to Jisung, Jisung would go to war with his ship for Chan without hesitating.

“No,” said Chan, “I understand the reasoning. If it’d been you or Mark-hyung I’d have done the same thing. But the fact of the matter is that Mark-hyung wasn’t like you. Besides actually being a seer and probably being able to see parts of the plans, he didn’t go through hell the way you did and me revealing him to all the crews at Tortuga wouldn’t put his life on the line the way JB doing that to you did. It would have put him in danger, but not in the same way. Those pirates knew you, JB knew that too. So I understand, but I disagree with his choice. We have better things to do than hunt crews that betrayed us for a, I wouldn’t say it’s good but it’s a valid reason. Just because they weren’t smart enough to figure out how to do it in any other way isn’t a good enough reason to want to destroy them. It still hurts though. They were my first family, Sung, the first people that took me in for longer than a month after my grandparents shipped me off on a trade ship. I wouldn’t have left BamBam-hyung with them if I didn’t trust them, I wouldn’t have brought you on board their ship. I thought we mattered to them the way they do to us, but I suppose that was wrong. Here, you want to toss that for me?” He handed the letter to Jisung who stood up and shoved it out the window watching the wind catch it and drop it into the ocean below. He moved back to sit with Chan who ran a hand through messy curls, making it messier.

“It’s getting late,” said Chan changing the topic before Jisung could try to continue the conversation. “Let’s get the others to think about sleep, yeah?”

“You need to sleep too, hyung,” said Jisung standing up and pulling Chan after him.

“I’m okay,” said Chan shaking his head. “I’ll come to bed in a bit, I’m just not very tired yet.” He missed Jisung squinting at him suspiciously as he walked out of the room to find the others. He also missed Minho raising his eyebrow at Jisung and Jisung nodding in response as he got the group to head in towards the cabin. The eight of them began the nightly ritual of removing weapons and boots and deciding who was sleeping where. Felix and Hyunjin had claimed the hammocks for the night, Seungmin and Changbin in the window seat, leaving Jisung, Minho, and Jeongin in the bed. Chan ruffled Jeongin’s hair and told him goodnight, pinched Jisung’s cheek, and moved onto Minho.

“I want a hug,” said Minho reaching for Chan who laughed but agreed. To his surprise Minho’s arms tightened around him and then suddenly they were rolling in towards Jisung who moved to climb up on top of Chan and was sitting on him, putting the two of them firmly in between Jeongin and Minho who made sure to block either side of the bed.

“What?” spluttered Chan as the rest of the 00 line laughed at his predicament and Changbin was trying to hold back a laugh of his own.

“You’re sleeping with us tonight. You’re not getting me off unless you throw me,” insisted Jisung and Chan struggled a little, just to check how serious Jisung was. Jisung didn’t budge and Chan stopped, allowing it to happen. They both knew he wasn’t going to throw Jisung off of him, that he wasn’t willing to do anything that might hurt him.

“Seriously, I’m fine, you didn’t need to resort to this,” complained Chan trying to get comfortable now that Jisung was apparently going to sleep on top of him all night.

“You’ve not been sleeping nearly enough,” insisted Seungmin.

“And you always tell us to talk about things when we need to,” said Minho, “but you’ve been too busy running away to talk about anything.”

“We’re not going to make you talk about it, hyung,” said Felix, “if you don’t want to. But you have to take care of yourself and you’re not because you’re avoiding slowing down enough to think about it too much.”

“Look, if we weren’t about to go into a war with multiple governments and one of those being the fucking British Empire, we’d probably have let it go a couple more days, but we need you, hyung,” said Changbin, “and you’re hurting yourself because of this. If that means we have to trick you into going to bed with everyone else then we’ll do it.”

“Don’t think this is the only plan we have either, hyung,” said Jeongin.

“Yeah,” agreed Hyunjin, “just because last time you stopped sleeping it was just Jisung and Changbin, doesn’t mean the rest of us have other tricks up our sleeves. There’s more than one way to get you to sleep, hyung.”

“So, please take care of yourself, even if you aren’t wanting to talk about it yet,” agreed Seungmin.

“I’ll try to be better about it, okay. I’m not trying to worry you all,” said Chan wrapping his arms around Jisung. “And Jisung and I did talk about it.”

“No, you read the letter and then tossed it and changed the conversation before I could check on you,” said Jisung, “we both know you rounding everyone up for bed was trying to run away from a conversation about feelings.”

“You’re good with everyone’s feelings but your own, hyung,” said Changbin in agreement.

“Right, so when you’re ready to talk about it we’ll talk about it,” said Seungmin. “But you have to be sleeping or you’re only ever going to feel worse and worse about it.”

“Okay, okay,” said Chan relenting. “Then let’s go to sleep.” The eight of them quiet down and settle in quickly. Slowly people’s breathing starts to even out as the ship rocks slightly with the water below, and in the distance there’s a soft sound of a siren singing.

It’s a lot later when Minho wakes up to someone climbing over him, late enough that the sky is just starting to barely lighten as the sun begins to think of coming up over the horizon. Minho realizes it’s Chan slipping out the door and down the hall as his eyes adjust to the darkness. He rubs the back of his hand across his eyes before sitting up and carefully sliding out of bed, trying not to wake anyone else. He grabs his jacket and the one that Chan had left behind and headed up to the deck. Chan’s not at the helm but is climbing up the rigging towards the crows nest and Minho thinks for just a split second about going back to wake one of the others to come climb up the rigging and talk to their captain. Instead he ties Chan’s jacket around his waist and starts to climb. It had been a while since he had climbed in the rigging, since the others had learned he hated it and was afraid of heights, which was the same time that he learned that they weren’t going to make him do things that terrified him the way heights did. But he remembers how he did it before and how to do it without having to look at where he’s placing his feet so he doesn’t see the deck below. It doesn’t take him too long to reach the crows nest and climb in. It’s really not very big and Chan turns to look at him when he realizes he’s not alone and his face morphs to shock quickly when he realizes its Minho that’s followed him out here.

“Min, what? You didn’t need to climb up here, I’d have come down to you or you could have gotten someone else to come get me. Are you okay? Did something happen?” asked Chan trying to come up with any possible reason Minho would have had to chase him up into the crows nest and only coming up with that Minho had had a nightmare bad enough that he had climbed up to Chan rather than wake someone who was sleeping.

“You forgot your jacket,” said Minho untying it from around his waist and handing it over. “I’m fine, hyung, stop worrying about me for a little bit, okay?” Chan pulled the jacket on still looking confused but less concerned now.

“Thanks,” said Chan, “why did you follow me up here if you’re okay?”

“Because you’re not,” said Minho as if this was obvious and maybe it was and Chan was just too far in his own head right now to see it.

“I’m fine,” insisted Chan and Minho raised an eyebrow.

“If you keep lying to me I’m going to start smacking you every time you do,” said Minho, “you’re not okay, and honestly if you were I’d be worried. You shouldn’t be okay.”

“No we should be worried about Jisung,” said Chan shaking his head. “I’m fi.” He cut himself off mid-sentence when Minho raised a hand threateningly.

“I’m not who was threatened in Tortuga,” said Chan adjusting what he was saying, “Jisung was. If anyone has a right to be upset about it, it’s him.”

“Yeah, and he’s come to terms with it and actually is okay. But they broke your trust too. We know that you wouldn’t have ever given Jisung the okay to tell Eclipse about his magic if you didn’t trust them completely. You’re more careful with the rest of us than you ever are with yourself, hyung. You can’t keep running from it.” Chan wilted slightly and nodded.

“I know. But we don’t have time for me to have a breakdown,” said Chan gesturing towards the ocean, “we have more enemies than we’ve ever had before after us and are in the middle of an actual war here. I’m the leader I have to be in control of this or as much of it as possible and I can’t be if I’m in the middle of a breakdown because some jackass that I made the mistake of trusting betrayed me.”

“Just because you’re not acknowledging it doesn’t mean you’re not breaking down,” said Minho, “and anytime that you’re too busy lying to yourself to take care of yourself is going to put more strain on you than just being emotional ever will. There’s a reason there are eight of us, hyung, there’s a reason the Levanter takes a crew to sail. You’re not supposed to be alone. You’ve spent years catching the rest of us when we fall and helping us find our footing and be okay. Trust us to catch you too, okay? We’ve got you, you’re allowed to not be okay.” Chan’s quiet a minute before whispering.

“Can I have a hug?” he asked softly. “It’s okay if you can’t, if you’re not feeling touchy.” Minho didn’t let him finish just pulled him into a tight hug. Chan hesitated a moment before melting into it and hugging him back tightly enough that Minho wasn’t sure they hadn’t crossed the line between hugging and Chan clinging to him. They stayed there for a while, Minho holding Chan as the older boy silently broke down in his arms. Once Chan had calmed down and was finally feeling better he pulled back from Minho and the sun was just starting to rise on the horizon.

“Thanks, Minho-yah,” he said, “you were right, that helped.”

“See, I know what I’m talking about. You’re feeling a lot better now, right?” asked Minho and Chan nodded.

“Good, because I’m going to need your help to get back down from here,” said Minho grimacing and glancing at the edge of the crows nest, already dreading the journey back to the deck. Chan laughed but agreed willingly to help and the two of them carefully started making their way down to the deck below. Minho drags Chan back to bed since no one else is up and Chan doesn’t protest. They sleep longer than any of the younger kids that morning.

Early afternoon the first ship appears on the horizon and by evening Lovesick is in the dock and there are two more ships on the horizon. Crown and Dalla arrive next that night. The next morning sees the arrival of the entirety of the Whiplash crew, Valkyrie and Zombie close behind. It’s two more days as they wait for the arrival of the last two crews. Fearless arrives by sunset on the second day. And then they wait. One day turns to two turns to four and then before they know it a week has gone by and then two and everyone’s beginning to worry as Twilight misses the set meeting day. By the two and a half week mark Chan finds himself faced with the captains of several of the other crews on his deck. His crew is scattered around the town but the majority of them are still nearby. Jisung is near the rail of the ship and Hyunjin at the helm, eyes on the horizon. Seungmin and Felix are both somewhere nearby with Seungmin’s books, they had said they were researching poisons and chemicals.

“I think it’s time we consider what we do if Twilight doesn’t show up,” said Taeyong.

“You’re not suggesting they’ve betrayed us,” said Seungcheol frowning.

“No, I am suggesting that something has happened. They were one ship sent to get the information from the French and they aren’t very big,” said Taeyong, “while I hope as much as the rest of you that they’re just running late, let’s be realistic. The chances of all of us coming back both successful and alive were not high to start with.”

“They might still be okay,” said Soobin hesitantly.

“We’re pretty sure we would know if they weren’t,” said Chan hesitantly.

“Oh, is your first mate actually a seer?” asked Ravn, captain of the Valkyrie, curiously.

“No,” said Chan, “Han’s not a seer.”

“He’s obviously something, but okay,” said Sungjin nodding, “we’re not your crew you’re not going to tell us, makes sense.”

“There’s really no use hiding it now,” said Jisung glancing over his shoulder, “may as well know what it actually is rather than assume the wrong thing like everyone else is.” Chan hesitated then nodded, if Jisung was okay with it then it was fine.

“Jisung-ah’s not a seer. Seer’s have more control over their ability to see the future, but they tend to see with a lot less surety. The way I understand it is a seer is going to see every possible pathway and then has to decide what seems most probable. It makes them a lot more inaccurate as far as telling the future, especially since they can only remember so many versions of the future and can’t see the future for extended periods of time. They go into a trance state in order to see the future and can’t do anything else. There’s a handful of various magic that’s clairvoyant or future seeing, Jisung’s not a seer he’s a prophet. Specifically what’s called a Doom Prophet. Doom Prophets only have visions of death and catastrophic events, visions and nightmares. It normally involves screaming if it’s not a short vision. Smaller events that are more immediate are quiet and fast and that happens a lot, especially on a pirate ship. Sometimes there are riddles involved if he was awake when the vision started. While he can force himself into a vision to see specific futures, it’s a mess and jumbles and doesn’t make sense and it hurts him, especially if he tries to force it into making sense. Which basically boils down to he can’t see the plans and the future of how this war with the government and alliances is going to go, and Captain Lim knew that fully well when he suggested it, not without it causing him a severe amount of pain and even then it’s not going to be very clear. But since we’re pretty good friends with the crew of the Twilight, if something had happened where they were dead or going to die soon, he would have seen something by now. So whatever happened to the Twilight they’re not in danger of dying anytime soon, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re not in danger. And given that the crime of piracy is death, they’re fine and something else has happened.”

“That’s good, that they’re alright,” said Ravn nodding.

“But that still leaves us with, what now,” said Jennie shaking her head. “Without them we’re down another ship and need to start planning, and it means we still don’t know what’s going on with the French.”

“Jennie’s right,” said Taeyong with a nod. “Whether the Twilight shows up or not we need to have a plan and need to start executing that plan. The longer the law thinks it controls the seas, the more it actually will and the harder it will be to fight it.”

“Then we need to go to the map room, because that’s where the map with all the plans and placements is,” said Chan turning and leading the way through the Levanter to the map room. Seungmin and Felix are on the floor of the map room in a corner, a handful of books in a variety of languages open in front of them and several glass jars that Chan doesn’t know what they contain and isn’t sure he wants too as well.

“Seungmin, does that smoking mean it’s going to blow up? Because we’ve talked about explosives on the ship before and I’d rather not have that conversation again,” said Chan eyeing one of the bottles that had a little smoke rising from it.

“It’s just hot, hyung, it won’t explode,” said Seungmin.

“We think,” added Felix.

“It won’t as long as we don’t add anything explosive to it,” corrected Seungmin, “oh, hello, everyone. What’s going on?”

“We’re looking at the map, want to help?” asked Chan hoping to pry the two on the floor away from the bottles of chemicals and potential poisons and explosives.

“Oh yes!” said Seungmin jumping to his feet. “Hang on, I’ve got all dad’s plans written down somewhere. He wrote it in Spanish, that’s probably why he wanted me to stop learning it actually.”

“Do I need to get Jisung?” asked Felix looking up from where he was carefully moving things out of the way so they wouldn’t get tipped over.

“No, he’s been teaching me for like two years now, conversationally I might not be perfect but I can translate it from writing just fine,” said Seungmin nodding as he started pulling things off the bookshelf. “Do you want the war strategy books too? And the Navy numbers book? War strategy is good for planning and the Navy numbers book should give us a decent idea of the movement of the ships not stationed anywhere specific.”

“Grab whatever you think is going to be useful,” agreed Chan.

“That’s the entire bookshelf, Channie-hyung, better stop him before he creates the Himalayas out of books for planning,” said Felix smiling and moving over towards Chan.

“You contributed to those books, Felix-hyung,” insisted Seungmin, “and if I made the Himalayas out of books it would look stunning.” Chan sighed.

“Let’s not though since we do need to be able to see what we’re doing,” said Chan gesturing to the large table against one of the walls that was already covered in layers of maps in different languages and then gesturing to the general clutter of the room, maps, books, poisons, weapons, chemicals, healing supplies, and other stolen goods were scattered in the many nooks and crannies of the room.

“Let’s move the table out so everyone can see,” suggested Felix and Chan agreed. Several of the others moved to help and soon they were all standing around the table as Chan and Felix sorted through the maps looking for the right ones.

“Hey this is in Japanese,” said Taeyong who had moved over to look at one of Seungmin’s bookshelves. “Does one of you speak Japanese?”

“I read a little and Felix can say his name, that he doesn’t speak Japanese and that he’s here to kill choose your favorite foreign dignitary,” said Seungmin, “there’s a translation book somewhere too and that book’s scribbled all over because I spent weeks translating it.” Taeyong pulled it off the shelf and flipped it open.

“Your translations are pretty good,” he said, “you translated this into Korean and English?”

“Yeah,” said Seungmin absently as he moved over to put his books on the desk and help the other two find the right map.

“How long did it take you?” asked Taeyong.

“A few weeks, it’s probably not super accurate because of a few of the sayings that I don’t understand but I was really just trying to get the basics of it,” said Seungmin nodding, “there was a lot of information about sword fighting that really isn’t what I was looking for but was still interesting to know. Felix and Jisung have been the best experience in actually helping improve my sword fighting.”

“Hands on practice is the only way to learn,” insisted Felix. “My dad gave me my first sword before I could walk.”

“That’s awfully young,” said Seungcheol frowning. “I mean my dad had me training in weapons once I was eight and I thought that was young, and he wanted me to follow in his footsteps and be a General or a Commodore or something.”

“Oh my parents are both assassins,” said Felix nodding, “they’re great. If I hadn’t wanted to do it they wouldn’t have ever made me, but I liked it and it’s important to know how to defend yourself and then it was really important really quickly that I know what I’m doing with a knife or even nothing at all. I learned a lot from them and then I picked up a lot of stuff from the different ships too. Hao-hyung and Lele taught me things my parents never would have. Hey, hyung, I think it’s this one.”

“I’m honestly not even sure how to respond to that,” said Seungcheol in response to Felix’s explanation.

“You’re very chatty for seeming so secretive,” said Jennie surprised.

“Did you learn anything about me other than my parents are nice and I can probably kill you with my eyes closed and one hand behind my back?” asked Felix, “or was I just talking?”

“No he’s right,” said Yeji nodding, “you talk a lot but you don’t say anything important, huh?” Felix shrugged.

“Nothing that’ll come back to bite me anyway,” he said nodding as Chan used Seungmin’s books to flatten down the edges of the map.

“This is insanely good for only having put in a couple weeks of work,” said Taeyong still flipping through Seungmin’s book. “You must be incredibly smart.”

“Seungmin collects languages the way you collect treasure, hyung,” said Chan nodding. “And science and math and everything else he can learn. History too. Pretty much if you need to know anything Seungmin either knows or could figure it out.”

“My memory’s photographic too, that helps,” said Seungmin nodding, “my dad used to say I was a genius, that I’d put to shame the minds of Alexander. Instead I became a pirate.”

“Alexander, like as in Alexander the Great,” said Soobin frowning, “huh.”

“I wouldn’t say I was a military genius, Aristotle is probably a little more up my lane, philosophy and science and the ways of the mind. You know all that good stuff. And explosives. I like explosives,” said Seungmin nodding, “chemicals, poisons, languages, how the body works. If you’re wanting strategy I’ve read hundreds of books on strategy and everything, but I’ve never been particularly good at war. But I do understand the British Navy and the British government good enough to be quite a bit of help. Chan-hyung’s good at strategy though he’s not too much of a planner. And Felix is great when it comes to planning for a fight. Between the three of us, surely we can figure this out.”

“Is that a crown?” asked Ravn pointing to a crown that was hung precariously on the corner of Seungmin’s bookshelf.

“Yes,” said Felix.

“Don’t ask questions I don’t have answers,” said Chan shaking his head.

“I’m going to ask anyway. Mostly, what the fuck?” said Seungcheol looking at the crown.

“Is that from Fort Gales?” asked Yeji looking at it.

“Yes it is, no we don’t know whose crown it is, and as to how it came to be in our possession? There were secret tunnels and Changbin and Jisung’s combined ability to steal anything,” said Chan nodding, “can we get to work now or would you like to continue looking through the disaster that is our map room hoping for answers that I don’t have as to how we end up with half the stuff we’ve taken over the years.” Jennie points to a jar on another shelf and opens her mouth but Chan beats her to it.

“Yes that’s a tongue. Seungmin has pickled it,” said Chan, “because science. The tongue came from the pirate that harassed Soobin and co the last time we were in Tortuga. That fucking tongue has been on this ship just as long as Felix has. No I don’t know why Jisung took it or why Seungmin decided to pickle it. Please don’t encourage it as I don’t really want to have any other body parts pickled in my map room.”

“On that note, don’t touch any of the clear glass jars no matter what’s in them, because those are Hyunjin’s and there’s a possibility you could cause something to go terribly wrong,” said Seungmin, “magic is particular and I don’t know enough to tell you more than not to touch it.”

“The tongue is the only clear jar that’s Seungmin’s because he stole it from Hyunjin to pickle the tongue and then Hyunjin complained about it so now the colored jars are Seungmin’s, that we got after the tongue incident so Seungmin didn’t have to keep stealing Hyunjin’s jars, and anything small and capped is definitely Felix’s no matter the color, don’t ingest it in anyway,” said Chan trying to cover their grounds.

“Poison, tracks with the assassin thing,” said Sungjin nodding, “don’t touch the glass jars, because pickled tongue, magic, potential explosive chemicals, and poison. How exactly is it you all haven’t blown yourselves up yet?”

“We don’t touch Seungmin’s shit,” said Chan with a chuckle. “It’s our ship we know how the chaos works. No one’s ships run the same way. Twilight is pretty chaotic too so I don’t have to worry so much about them. Can we get started now? The sooner we get the plans set the sooner we can get moving and the fewer people will die.” The other captains agree readily and everyone crowds around the table to look at the plans they’d stolen from Fort Gales, the others adding the information they had from the other countries as they planned.

It was late when everyone finally separated back out again and wandered off to find the rest of their crews. Chan and Felix spend awhile sorting back through the maps stacked on the table trying to make sure they hadn’t missed anything potentially helpful, before splitting up. Felix headed off down the docks to see where Hyunjin had run off to earlier that night. Which left Chan with a mostly empty ship. Minho and Jeongin were the only two in the cabin when he checked and both were fast asleep, curled up around each other on the bed. He took a moment to carefully take the weapons the two had forgotten to remove, clearly having accidentally fallen asleep, and set them aside before turning out the light and heading back towards the deck. The deck was quiet and the breeze that blew through the small port was gentle and friendly. Chan took a moment to look around before spotting Seungmin up at the helm where Jisung and Hyunjin had been earlier that afternoon and climbed the stairs up to the helm to talk to him.

“Seungmin-ah, it’s late, you should think about sleeping,” said Chan and Seungmin startled slightly turning to look at him, muscles relaxing as he realized it was Chan and nothing to be afraid of.

“Ah, probably, hyung,” he agreed. “Felix told you he went to find Hyunjin, right?”

“Yeah,” said Chan nodding, “something about Daehwi and the witches in town?”

“Yeah, Daehwi, Hyunjin, Shotaro, and a witch named Bomin,” said Seungmin nodding, “apparently Bomin and one of the older witches in town work with the sirens to keep up the illusion to protect the port.” Chan nodded, it made since that Hyunjin and Shotaro wanted to see if Bomin had any other tricks that they would be able to replicate with their own magic, the odd one out seemed to be Daehwi.

“Daehwi’s with them?” he asked and Seungmin nodded.

“Bomin met him early last week and claimed there was magic in him, guess we’ll see if it’s just that one of his ancestors had magic or if Dae can actually use it,” said Seungmin shrugging.

“What about Jisung and Changbin?” asked Chan. “Do you know where they are?”

“Jisung is with Changbin-hyung,” said Seungmin nodding, “I think they’re with some of the Fearless pirates. Or they’re with Crown. I’m not completely sure, but they’re with one of them. Said they’re probably going to be back late.”

“Alright,” said Chan nodding and leaning with his back to the rail so he was facing Seungmin, where Seungmin was leaned against it on his forearms facing the horizon, the wind rustling his hair slightly.

“You’re worried,” said Chan and Seungmin nodded.

“They’re okay, right?” he asked.

“Twilight? Yeah, I think so. I’m pretty sure we’d know by now if they weren’t and Hongjoong-ah’s smart. He can get that crew through just about anything,” said Chan nodding. “A couple French officials won’t stop them.”

“Then where are they,” said Seungmin shaking his head. “What if they did get caught? Or what if it was the pirates that caught them? I’m honestly not sure which would be worse.”

“I don’t know, Seungminnie,” said Chan quietly, “we’re just going to have to trust that they’re okay until we have information saying otherwise.” Seungmin sighed and turned away from the horizon.

“I don’t like not knowing,” he said, “I don’t like when I don’t know you all are okay and I don’t like it when our friends are missing either. They’ve missed the deadline by a lot now, hyung. Do you think we can do this without them?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure we can do this either way,” said Chan shaking his head. “But we’re going to try.”

“But we could stay here, it’s safe here,” said Seungmin.

“But it’s not freedom,” said Chan, “it’s not the sea and the adventure of sailing wherever the wind takes you. It’s not home. If you want to stay and trade safety for freedom I don’t blame you. We’ll miss you, but I’m sure that Daehwi would be happy and the others would welcome you with open arms. They’ve taken to Daehwi-yah pretty quick.” Seungmin is quiet a moment and Chan’s worried briefly that Seungmin’s actually considering it.

“Hyung, I’m not staying if the rest of you are going,” he said, “besides I risked everything I had for freedom, even if it wasn’t much to begin with. I made the choice a long time ago that it was something I was willing to fight for. Levanter is home, you know that, right? None of us are going to leave.” Chan can feeling his chest loosening at that. He’s not sure when he started to worry about that, but it felt like he had just taken a breath after holding it for days.

“I know,” he said and Seungmin nodded.

“Good,” he stated, “we picked this, we chose to stay with Levanter, nothing will ever make us leave. Not any of us, even Felix agrees.” Chan nods at that.

“I know, Seungmin-ah, I think I needed the reminder though, let’s get some sleep, yeah?” he suggested and Seungmin nodded and stepped back. The two of them started towards the stairs to the deck and Chan was halfway down when Seungmin turned back to glance one last time at the horizon. The wind shifted and Chan stepped back up a couple steps to make sure he was still coming and then gasped slightly. There on the horizon moving quickly with the wind were three ships, leading the way was the Twilight. 

**Author's Note:**

> school has started again so i'm not sure when the next one will be but at some point hopefully soon there will be more :) 
> 
> it's only the first week of class and i'm already so tired...on the upside it's my last first week of class, but also on the downside it's my last first week of class. it has not felt like four years already XD 
> 
> the letter from Eclipse was read in this chapter :D you are now free to choose murder for JB if you like but technically there was a reason XD 
> 
> also! i have added to the series notes a list of all the crews and ship names because we're at the point where it's now very confusing and i don't want to have to keep going back and trying to figure out who i named what and i'm sure you don't either so now there's a list XD 
> 
> and uh other life news includes that i may have sorta published a fantasy book on amazon kindle? so like that's a thing that still feels surreal, um but if you like fairytales and want to check it out it's called Summer under M.L. Mackenzi it's free if you have prime :) (i hate promoting myself and if i remember in the morning am probably going to delete this lol) 
> 
> right so there's more on the way but it depends on school because ugh homework 
> 
> thank you for reading i love you all!!!! ♡♡♡♡♡♡


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